NatWest cut 1,000 jobs in three months as AI rollout advances

NatWest said it had cut 1,400 jobs so far that year, and most of those reductions were in the latest quarter; The Telegraph reported 1,000 cuts in the last three months.[1] The figures did not include the impact of NatWest’s acquisition of Evelyn Partners, which brought about 2,200 employees into the group.[1][2] The sale of the bank’s business consultancy Mentor accounted for a quarter of the role reductions.[1] Thwaite said there was no single change driving the numbers, and cited both acquisitions and sales.[1] For workforce planning, the figures should be read alongside those caveats rather than as a direct measure of roles replaced by AI.

NatWest is rolling out AI across the bank, including in customer services.[1] Its fraud triage agent, Cora, had handled 52,000 credit-card customer issues since launching at the end of August.[1] The bank had also recently trialled a spending-insights helper and a fraud agent for credit-card customers.[2] NatWest says it is using AI to benefit customers and colleagues and to improve risk management and customer protection.[1] The available figures show adoption and job changes, but do not quantify how many cuts were caused by AI.

NatWest reported third-quarter pre-tax profits of £2.2 billion, flat year on year and slightly above City estimates.[1] It said it had made about £420 million in cost savings, bringing its year-to-date cost-to-income ratio to 45.7%.[2] The job reductions sit alongside wider banking-sector plans: Barclays said it planned to cut 5,000 jobs that year in an AI-related cull, while HSBC planned to use AI to reduce its UK financial-adviser workforce by almost 70%.[1] Those announcements provide context, but they do not show that the banks’ plans have the same causes or effects.